Dodgers Vice Chairman Steve Soboroff told several media outlets Thursday that Tom Schieffer, the trustee appointed by Commissioner Bud Selig to run the team, did not respond promptly to a request for upgraded stadium security. The allegation outraged Major League Baseball officials, for whom Schieffer produced an email in which he granted authorization two minutes after the request from Dodgers general counsel Sam Fernandez.

In addition to issuing a statement, McCourt apologized in a telephone call to Rob Manfred, the MLB executive vice president and Selig's point man on the Dodgers.

Soboroff did not return messages from The Times. He spoke Thursday with KPCC, Yahoo Sports and the New York Times.

As I got up to leave, shaking hands with McCourt and a couple of his top lieutenants who sat in on the interview, it occurred to me that this final answer was vintage McCourt. He has been accused at times of being arrogant, an adjective that would seem to fit a man who never believes he needs a Plan B because he never concedes in the slightest that his Plan A won't work exactly as he envisions it.

Seven years after McCourt bought the Dodgers, though, it is difficult to imagine that back on Jan. 29, 2004 -- the day McCourt's purchase of the team was finalized and right around the time I was moving to town and taking over the beat at one of the local newspapers here -- that he envisioned his Plan A leading him to where he is today.